Page 28

Chapter

Twenty-Six

GRACE

S omewhere between leaving the SUV and shimmying over the wall with Bones, I had a moment of what the fuck am I doing? He didn’t use rope to go up, instead, he did this running leap that had him at the top in nothing.

After a sweep of the area, he reached out a hand. “Jump,” he said almost too softly to hear. I probably wouldn’t have heard it if not for the comms.

Right. This was the part of the roller coaster ride ticking its way to the top before the sickening drop happened. The moment when all your life choices flashed before your eyes and you wondered, why the hell did you eat those nachos before you got in line.

Swallowing my objections, I dashed forward and put a foot on the wall as I jumped. My palm slapped against his and he hauled me up like I weighed nothing. At the top of the wall, he dropped to the other side. I rolled right after him and he caught me before he set me on my feet.

The whole thing took less than a minute. Bones led the way between the lights casting their eerie spots up on the compound’s perimeter as well as the walls of what looked more and more like an actual fortress the closer we came to it. He moved like a shadow, only taking my hand twice.

The first time was when we had to press against a jut in the wall to let a sweep of light pass by. The second time when he opened a door that I couldn’t even see and let us into a pitch black—somewhere.

The door clicked shut behind us. The sound seemed incredibly loud in the silence swallowing us. He moved my hand to his belt, then curled my fingers over it. Hold onto him there. Understood. I tugged once in acknowledgement.

No guards. No footsteps. Nothing. Our boots didn’t scuff or squeak as he walked forward.

My eyes had to have adjusted because ahead, I could just make out a faint grayish seam in the darkness.

It grew brighter as we got closer, then Bones eased us around the corner into a hall illuminated with ancient fluorescents that had not quite burnt out.

“Bravo team inside,” Bones said softly. “Moving to north wing.” He glanced back at me once and I nodded. He hadn’t said let go of his belt, so I kept my hand locked on.

We were close. Too close. Not close enough. Still, when he moved, I moved. When he stopped, so did I.

“Copy that.” Alphabet’s calm voice in my ears helped to soothe my jangling nerves. Like Bones, he projected nothing but confidence. “I’ve got eyes on thermals. Two guards in the next hall, staggered pace. You’ve got a twenty-second window before shift change.”

We moved.

The hall grew progressively brighter until we reached a new door.

“Door locks cycling,” Alphabet warned. “You’re clear to enter in five, four, three, two…

” On the one he didn’t say, Bones opened the door.

We were in a proper hallway for a home. Thick rugs muffled our passage and the lights were still on low here.

The pools of golden light were ideal to let you see where you were going without keeping anyone awake.

Bones tapped my hand on his belt and I unpeeled my grip. He pointed to my taser, then held up two fingers and pointed behind him.

Stay close, no more than two steps behind him and get out the taser. At least, that was my rough translation. Once I had the taser in hand, Bones took the lead again. He made his way through the hall like he’d been here before, slipping into another alcove and up stairs that were hidden by a wall.

I’d reviewed the plans too, so some of this was familiar, but I didn’t have it memorized. At the top of the stairs, he slid out, doing a full sweep before beckoning me out. He moved like a wraith, fluid, efficient, and deadly.

“Alpha team to vault hallway,” Lunchbox’s damn near gleeful tone gave me a jolt. It was only loud in my ear because of the comms. “There’s a pressure trigger on the panel and Voodoo’s throwing glares. It’s hot.”

“Because you’re humming while disarming explosives.” Voodoo’s irritation didn’t sound deep but it was real.

“I’m humming because I love my job.”

It was impossible to not smile at how irreverent and upbeat Lunchbox sounded. Yes, this was serious and we all had very specific jobs to do, but the borderline giddiness threw me back to him and Alphabet debating throwing a molotov cocktail out the window at the car pursuing us.

They were just—cheerful.

Movement ahead of us wiped away my smile. A guard stepped around the corner. Bones raised his gun and fired, two rounds. The suppressor didn’t rob the weapon of all sound, but it didn’t blow out my ears.

I fired the taser at the second guard who had a hand up toward his comm.

The dual wires snapped out as the prongs attached and the charge took the man down.

As soon as he was down, Bones pointed to the door ahead of us on the left.

After loading a new cartridge in the taser so it would be ready to fire again, I hurried to open the door.

The room itself seemed mostly empty. There were some boxes, and tables stacked up, but that was it. Storage maybe.

Bones dragged the guy he shot in by the collar. He retrieved the second, then slit his throat once they were in the room. Quick. Brutal.

My hands were shaking but I flexed my fingers and my grip to fight the reaction. My pulse was steadier than it had been outside, but it was still accelerating. Bones patted the men down while I kept watch from the door.

“You okay?” He added some items to one of his many pouches.

“I’m not fragile,” I whispered back. I wasn’t going to fall apart. At least, not while we were in here. Maybe I would when this was over, but I was allowed to freak out then.

It had to be in the rules somewhere.

“I know,” he said, his mouth barely moving as he shaped the words. “That’s why I’m checking.”

We left the dead men behind us and continued down the hall. The surroundings grew more lush, the decorations more fine, and the furnishings promised opulence and comfort. The man didn’t go for antiques, despite the staging.

He did go for expensive damn artwork though. There was a Degas on the wall, one of his black ink on brown paper pieces. Pretty sure it was the Jockey à cheval —or Three Mounted Jockeys, a work that was stolen decades earlier.

“Heat sigs moving below you. Might be a patrol. Four minutes until the next security sweep. Reznik’s office is two halls over. Go left.”

We slipped through an open archway and through a gallery. There was more art in here, some of those paintings had to be worth millions.

There was a marble figure of a woman, with bronze added to the parts of her clothing. Her bare breasts were small but clearly a woman’s and her direct stare faced any possible challenge. She was familiar, but I couldn’t place her offhand right now and it wasn’t important.

On the far side of the gallery, we reached a hall that divided, Bones followed it unerringly and I was right behind him.

We reached the door. Locked. Biometric.

“Vault is cracked.” Lunchbox let out a low whistle over the comms. “We’re in. Holy shit, this server array’s alive. Pulling the whole damn skeleton closet.”

“Focus,” Voodoo cautioned. “We’ve got five minutes max.”

“Bravo—two guards outside the office.” Alphabet hummed. “If he’s inside, you’re going to have to do a soft approach.”

Bones frowned then glanced at me.

“Soft approach?” I mouthed the words. I would rather go through this locked door, but that wasn’t an option right now.

“It means distract them,” he answered, his gray eyes intent on me. “You saunter out there and get their attention, non-aggressive, not a threat.”

Oh. “Kind of like when I played bait.”

He grimaced. “Yes.”

“Okay.” I tucked the taser back under the vest then glanced down at myself. “Not really that sexy at the moment. But I can make it work.”

I started toward the hallway but got hauled back when he wrapped his hand around my biceps. “Distraction, only. I will be right there. You think they aren’t going for it, duck, cover, shoot, or stab. Got it?”

“Well,” I murmured. “That’s a bit intense even for me.” I pushed up on my toes and pressed a kiss to his jaw. “I can do it.”

Comms had gone almost dead silent. When he finally nodded and released me, I flashed a smile at him.

Deep breath. Second deep breath, and I shook out my hands before I headed around the corner and down the hall. There was no mistaking the two guards standing there, chatting with their weapons holstered or slung by a strap over a shoulder.

Nope, they weren’t expecting anyone.

I grinned as their surprised gazes lifted toward me.

“Hey, boys,” I purred the words, mimicking one of my favorite actresses. “I’m lost.” I kept my hips fluid, the slow, swaying walk that accented the flow of whatever clothing I was wearing. In this case, I just wanted to keep their attention up and not on the holster I had on.

Spreading my hands out, I added, “Could one of you point me toward the tasting room?”

Incredulity took root on one guard’s face as he reached for me while suspicion marked the other man’s as he went for his weapon. Neither fully completed the move. I stumbled forward even as Bones just raced past me.

He caught the second guard in the jaw with a pair of hard hits, then a third one dropped him. The first guard gaped even as I caught his arm for balance and then slammed my knee into his crotch.

Bones had him in a headlock not even a full second after. He locked gazes with me as he lowered the guard to the ground as the other man’s eyes rolled up in his head. He pulled a card from the man’s pocket and didn’t bother to clean up either man, though he did strip down their weapons.

One swipe and we were in Reznik’s office. A massive desk occupied the center with a fireplace on one wall. Velvet drapes framed the huge windows and sheers kept anything from being visible from the outside.

It was also empty.

“Alphabet, we’re going to need an extraction route. Any surprises?” He pulled a thumb drive out of one of his many pockets and pointed to the computer before he headed for the file cabinets.

The thumb drive sparked a memory, but I shoved it away for now. I had another one but it was in my stuff back at the house. I pushed the drive into one of the USB slots, then hit the spacebar.

“Motion sensors just tripped near the east stairwell,” Alphabet warned. “You have about a minute. Package up what you need and get out.”

The drive did its job, the screen’s password lock cleared, then a couple of other windows opened and code flowed as the hard drive began to hum.

Bones pulled out burner phones, passports, and what looked like small books from one drawer. He stuffed them into his backpack. I opened the desk drawer and searched it. It seemed pretty normal.

Bottom drawer was locked. Bones moved to me and wedged his knife in and then popped the drawer open.

“That’s a lot of cash,” I murmured. Stacks of bills in different denominations.

“Take it.” Bones began loading his bag as I did mine.

“Eureka,” Lunchbox said, satisfaction filling his voice. “Files transferred. We’ve got the blackmail, auction records, buyer IDs. Numbered accounts. Pretty sure we have their bankers too.”

I zipped up the bag with the cash in it and slid it back on. The machine was almost done, the windows flickering until the last one closed.

A sharp crackle over comms made me flinch. I jerked the thumb drive out.

“Bravo, company coming your way. Not guards. Tactical. ” The urgency underlying Alphabet’s message didn’t make him louder. If anything, he was softer and he sounded even more dangerous.

Bones grabbed my hand. “Move.”

We left the office the way we came in, stepping over the bodies on the floor before racing back toward the gallery.

“Halt!” A shout echoed toward us and a bullet pinged off the stone wall. We didn’t slow down, if anything, Bones went faster. He pulled me around the corner, then another, then he pushed open a door I hadn’t even seen and into a narrow stairwell.

He retreated into an alcove almost tucked behind the door, arm around my middle. His breathing was a bit ragged, fast, and real. The door moved and he raised his gun, it was pointed at the door itself even as the door pushed back toward us.

I held my breath.

“Clear,” a man grunted, then withdrew and the door closed again, before a bolt slid home. They’d locked it. “Spread out. Find them. Now .”

We didn’t move, and I only took in a little breath, sure that even a single gasp would give us away. The thud of footsteps beyond the door moved away.

Bones pressed his lips to my ear. “Right behind me.”

“Yes, sir,” I answered, and he paused to shoot me a what might have been a smirk. Maybe.

What? He wanted obedience, he was getting obedience, even my heart had started to gallop again. I stuffed the thumb drive into a pocket under my vest, just in case.

“Bravo team heading to ground floor,” Bones said quietly. “Give me eyes and ears.”